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Madison — Law enforcement officers are searching for Democratic senators boycotting a Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair plan Thursday in an attempt to bring the lawmakers to the floor to allow Republicans to move forward with action on the bill.

One Democratic senator said that he believed at least most of the members of his caucus are in another state. At least one, however, Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said he was still in his Capitol office listening to constituents.

In a press conference just off the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said that Democrats were "not showing up for work" and that police were searching for them to bring them to the floor.

"That's not democracy. That's not what this chamber is about," Fitzgerald said of the boycott to reporters.

Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) confirmed Thursday that Democrats are boycotting the Senate action on the bill in efforts to block a quorum and keep the measure from passing. Because 20 senators of the 33-member house are needed to be present to pass a fiscal bill, the body's 19 Republicans will not be enough to pass the budget repair bill without at least one Democrat present.

"They can't pass this bill if there's not a Democrat in the chamber," Cullen said.

Cullen said he believed most of the Democrats were now outside Wisconsin, though he declined to say where.

"I think they're all out of state. I am anyway," Cullen said.

Speculation in the Capitol pointed to Illinois as the state where Democrats had headed.

Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) released a statement calling on Republicans to listen to unions and protesters calling for changes to the bill, which would cut benefits and almost all union bargaining rights for public employees.

"Democrats believe it is wrong to strip people of their right to have a say in the conditions of their employment and to use state law to bust unions," Miller said. "These people deserve to be heard and their rights ought to be respected."

Cullen said Democrats hope delaying the bill will give more time for union demonstrators to win over any possible wavering Republicans. He said the decision was made by other Democrats at a meeting at which he was not present.

Fitzgerald said he believed the last time such an action had happened was in the mid-1990s when the Assembly was at odds over a bill to help finance Miller Park. He said he was not sure how much authority law enforcement officials would have to compel Democrats to show up.

The tactic wasn't winning over Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay), a moderate whom unions had been trying to court to vote against the bill. Cowles called the blockage of the Senate vote an attempt to "shut down democracy."

The Senate convened at 11:30, with 17 Republicans but no Democrats present. After a prayer and the pledge of allegiance, action was immediately disrupted by demonstrators in the gallery shouting, "Freedom, democracy, unions."

Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) made a call of the house to bring the three additional senators needed to vote on the bill to the Senate floor.

If a Democrat does show up for the vote, a handful of GOP senators will decide the fate of Walker's bill.

The Senate is meeting amid massive demonstrations that have so packed the Capitol that movement outside the Senate chambers is difficult at best.

Spokesmen for the Republican governor and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said they were confident that the GOP lawmakers had the votes they needed to pass the bill without further changes. Walker has said that the proposal's cuts to worker benefits and to decades-old union bargaining laws are needed to help balance the state's gaping budget shortfall in this year and the next two.

Republicans control the Senate 19-14, meaning they can lose only two votes and still pass the bill if all Democrats oppose it. Some Republicans have shown reluctance about the bill, though so far none have said publicly that they will vote against it.

Even after voting for the proposal in the Legislature's budget committee just before midnight Wednesday, Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) showed his concern about the effects of the proposal on workers.

"I will probably vote for it" on the Senate floor, Olsen said.

On a 12-4 party-line vote Wednesday, the Joint Finance Committee added new civil-service protections for local government employees and kept cuts to public worker benefits. The budget committee began debating the bill at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, after Republicans spent hours behind closed doors crafting the changes. The Senate and Assembly could now act on it as early as Thursday.

"This will pass in that form," Fitzgerald said.

The changes the committee adopted would require all local governments to create civil-service systems similar to the one for the state. It would also allow limited-term employees to keep their benefits. Some limited-term employees have worked for the state for years, and the original version of the bill would have taken away all their health care coverage and retirement benefits.

The debate in the committee was impassioned and at times emotional.

"People have said they're willing to sacrifice. Why are we going after people's rights?" asked Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee).

But Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), whose wife is a teacher, said he believed the bill was needed to ensure schools are run efficiently.

"What about the right of the taxpayer to run a frugal school district?" Nygren said.

The changes did not appease the thousands of teachers and state workers who have filled the Capitol for two days.

They booed loudly as they learned the bill still would take away their union rights as they watched the committee proceedings on televisions mounted in the Capitol Rotunda.

"I think it's disgusting," said John Bausch, a Darlington music teacher in elementary and middle school.

"This is not what Wisconsin is all about. We've had collective bargaining for (50) years and to throw it all out without our say is a disgrace."

More are expected to come to the Capitol after Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, urged teachers and other Wisconsin residents to come to Madison on Thursday and Friday. She stopped short of asking teachers to walk off their jobs.

In Milwaukee, Superintendent Gregory E. Thornton said teachers are expected to be at work Thursday and Friday, and failure to do so, without a valid excuse, will result in disciplinary action.

WEAC's effort came as Madison schools closed Wednesday because more than 40% of teachers called in sick so they could lobby legislators. Madison schools will be closed Thursday for the same reason. Other districts also were considering closing.

Walker, who proposed the bill, said he was "disappointed" with the action by the Madison teachers and that he appreciates that other public employees are showing up for work. He said he respects workers' right to demonstrate but that he is "not intimidated into thinking that they're the only voices out there."

In a sign of the national attention the proposal is drawing, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has scheduled a telephone call with Walker for Thursday, said Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the federal agency. The Associated Press reported Duncan said Wednesday at a Denver conference of teacher unions and school administrators that the move in Wisconsin and other states to strip teachers of bargaining rights worries him.

In an interview with WTMJ-TV (Channel 4), President Barack Obama said public workers have to be prepared to make concessions but that he thought Walker's plan was unduly harsh on unions.

Walker offered the bill to help shore up the state's finances in advance of a budget to be delivered Tuesday that is expected to include major cuts in areas like aid to local schools and governments.

He first wants the budget repair bill passed to help clear up a $137 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year ending June 30 and ease solving a deficit of more than $3 billion over the next two years. The cuts to benefits would save taxpayers nearly $330 million through mid-2013.

Major elements of the budget-repair bill remain in place. It would require most public workers to pay half their pension costs - typically 5.8% of pay for state workers - and at least 12% of their health care costs. It applies to most state and local employees but does not apply to police, firefighters and state troopers, who would continue to bargain for their benefits.

Except for police, firefighters and troopers, raises would be limited to inflation unless a bigger increase was approved in a referendum. The non-law enforcement unions would lose their rights to bargain over anything but wages, would have to hold annual elections to keep their organizations intact and would lose the ability to have union dues deducted from state paychecks.

The most significant change the Joint Finance Committee approved would require local governments that don't have civil-service systems to create an employee grievance system within months. Those local civil-service systems would have to address grievances for employee termination, employee discipline and workplace safety.

The bill also gives Walker's Department of Health Services the power to write rules that would change state laws dealing with medical care for children, parents and childless adults; prescription drug plans for seniors; nursing home care for the elderly; and long-term care for the elderly and disabled outside of nursing homes.

They are cowards for not showing up? Really? That's why the didn't show, because they're cowards?

WTH are you talking about??
It's an illegal act according to the rule of law in the WI state constitution that they swore an oath to when they took office.
That is why the police are searching for them and will bring them in.

They are cowards for not showing up? Really? That's why the didn't show, because they're cowards?

The reason they are running is because they are cowards. You need 20 votes with out those cowards there is only 19. They are running because they do not want the unions poed at them Very cowardly. There running because they no walker is on the right track. and every thing our past gov. done is going by the way side. This is a very small sacrifice to pay when the private sector been dealing with a lot worse for the last decade.

The news from that region indicates it was pretty orchestrated eh? All the Democrats loaded up on a bus and left town???

And the Dingy Harry followers are so sure it's the Republicans that are going to shut down the government. Don't think Obama's warriors aren't involved in all this crap.

Hang in there RK. Your Gov has plenty of the TEA Partiers in full support of his party's activities. What your state has begun is just that...the beginning of all these folks on the public dole suddenly realizing the democrats that dole it out, have run out of other peoples money.

Please don't look at this as I'm gloating. It's just reality setting in, and has been predicted by way more intelligent folks than me.

Before you liberals chastise all the Republicans for being the cause of these type of cuts, how arrogant must you be while on the public payroll, to think those pensions and bennys will continue forever? Now that the coffers are empty, how many want to continue to squeeze blood from that dry turnip?

The realization has to start smacking the Democrats along side the head pretty soon. Even their toady support of such luminaries as Cuomo in NY, and the left's beloved "Moonbeam" in California have seen the writing on the wall, and what Christy has done in NJ and Walker is doing in Wisconson will pale compared to what those two states will need to do.

The POTUS and his followers can claim "union-busting" all they want, but it's just simple reality. When the chips are down...the buffalo is empty.

UB

When the one you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.

The news from that region indicates it was pretty orchestrated eh? All the Democrats loaded up on a bus and left town???

And the Dingy Harry followers are so sure it's the Republicans that are going to shut down the government. Don't think Obama's warriors aren't involved in all this crap.

Hang in there RK. Your Gov has plenty of the TEA Partiers in full support of his party's activities. What your state has begun is just that...the beginning of all these folks on the public dole suddenly realizing the democrats that dole it out, have run out of other peoples money.

Please don't look at this as I'm gloating. It's just reality setting in, and has been predicted by way more intelligent folks than me.

Before you liberals chastise all the Republicans for being the cause of these type of cuts, how arrogant must you be while on the public payroll, to think those pensions and bennys will continue forever? Now that the coffers are empty, how many want to continue to squeeze blood from that dry turnip?

The realization has to start smacking the Democrats along side the head pretty soon. Even their toady support of such luminaries as Cuomo in NY, and the left's beloved "Moonbeam" in California have seen the writing on the wall, and what Christy has done in NJ and Walker is doing in Wisconson will pale compared to what those two states will need to do.

The POTUS and his followers can claim "union-busting" all they want, but it's just simple reality. When the chips are down...the buffalo is empty.

UB

One of the hardest things to deal with here is that several schools were shut down.....thus depriving these starving children of their FREE breakfasts and lunches.

Oh.....the humanity!!!!!

It has been reported that in 1 district some kids were picketing in front of their schools with signs reading;

I would over haul the whole education system in every state. Public schools would be funded for all legal residence until the fifth grade. At that time a free public education would be provided to the top ten percent of students. The next forty percent would be provided a public education, but their parent would pay for it. The higher the rank the lower the cost. All other students would have to go to private schools. Each year the students would take another test and be grouped based on their ranking. This system should be able to sustain the pay of the teachers and since the bottom half of students will one day end up on public aid I see no need to waste education dollars. The students will work harder to move up in ranking because their parents will be pushing them to work to their fullest ability. All education dollars will go only to core education.

This idea is borrowed from my daughters law school funding department. To get into the school the students take the LSAT and along with grades are ranked. The student at the top gets the most aid and as the ranking goes down so does the aid, there is just so much aid money that the students in the lower rankings pay full price. Each year of school the students are ranked again. The aid is adjusted based on ranking. This is a private school and all the gifted money comes from private sources.

Athletes and special needs students have more educational benefits than the best and the brightest. I have no problem with talented kids playing sports, but the money should not come out of the education budget. If you want your kid to play then pay for it yourself or get a sponsor. Also I have no problem in helping special needs students, but I do not think I should pay for their food, transportation, and their study materials. Is this not every parents duty to meet these needs?

Everyone is to blame. Parents, students, teacher, and law makers.
Terri